
Qass ■- "^ -^ / 

Book. -i- 



C54% 



AN ADDRESS 



ON THE 



CHAKACTER AND EXAMPLE 



OF 



President Lincoln, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



atljeuaeum autr JEberett ^omtit^ 



OF 



HAYEEFORD COLLEGE, 



BY 



PEOFESSOR THOMAS CHASE, 

On Fifth Day Evening, Seventli IVIontli 6th, 1865. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
SHERMAN & CO., PRINTERS. 

1^65. 



AN ADDRESS 



ON THE 



CHARACTER AND EXAMPLE 



OF 



President Lij^ooln, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



atljena^um antr lEberett ^otittm 



OF 



HAYEEFORD COLLEGE, 



BY 



PROFESSOR THOMAS CHASE. 



u, 



On Fifth Day Evening, Seventh iVIonth 6th, 1865. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

SHEEMAI^ & CO., PKINTEES. 
1865. 






y 



COERESPONDENCE. 



Haverford College, 7th Month 8th, 1865. 

At a joint meeting of the Athenaeum and Everett Societies, held 
7th month 7th, 1865, it was resolved, 

That the thanks of the Societies are due, and are hereby tendered, 
to Professor Thomas Chase, for his able and eloquent Address on 
"The Character and Example of President Lincoln;" and we, as 
their Committee, were authorized to request a copy for publication. 

Benj. A. Vail, 
S. C. Collins, 

Of the Athenceum Society. 
A. M, Elliott, 
D. H. Nichols, 

Of the Ever'ett Society. 



Haverford, 7th Month 8th, 1865. 
Benj. A. Vail, S. C. Collins, A. M. Elliott, D. H. Nichols, 

Co7mnittee. 

A copy of my Address is herewith placed at your disposal. 
Very truly, your Eriend, 

Thomas Chase. 



ADDRESS. 



History records no more touching, no sublimer spectacle, 
than that which has just been presented in our own land, 
of a mighty nation of freemen, stretching over half a con- 
tinent, from one of the world's great oceans to the other, 
bowed as one man in mourning and lamentation at the loss 
of their beloved and chosen chief. Who of us shall ever for- 
get the agony of that saddest day in our country's annals, 
Avhen it was told us that the shameless hand of a low- 
lived assassin had struck down the foremost man of all 
this world, — the grief, the shame, the horror, and the 
righteous anger which thrilled through every heart at 
that fell tidings ? but grief overmastering our shame, our 
horror, and even our just wrath; grief as deep and as in- 
tense as if we had each been robbed of the nearest and 
dearest of our kindred; benumbing grief, which weighed 
upon our hearts like lead; which we could not shake off, 
nor would we if we could; itself the most impressive tri- 
bute that could be paid to the greatness and goodness of 
him who had won from a whole nation this devoted affec- 
tion, and the fittest eulogy of his virtues. 

Prompted by an irresistible impulse, we met, on that 
sad morning, to pay our simple, heartfelt tribute, to the 
memory of the departed patriot and Christian. The foun- 
tains of our tears were open, we spoke our few and earnest 



WOi^ds, and prayers ascended to the Source of all grace and 
consolation, for the widow, and the or23hans,andthe stricken 
land. And what we did, unbidden, men did everywhere, 
each in his own way. The hearts of millions had been 
l^ierced at one blow, and in deep and solemn harmony the 
voice of common lamentation arose from the whole land. 
The lightnings had flashed the tidings to remotest city 
and hamlet, and throughout the length and breadth of 
the country men went witli downcast eyes and bated 
breath. As, later in the day, I walked the streets of yon- 
der city, the manifold emblems of mourning around me, 
enforcing the sense, with a painful shock, that that was 
indeed reality which had a^^peared like some hideous 
dream, I seemed to have joined the vast funeral procession 
which was following the martyr's body to the tomb. One 
thought, one feeling, was uppermost in the hearts of all 
those silent, thronging thousands. It was indeed majestic, 
this unanimity of woe, this i^rofound emotion of a people's 
heart in recognition of departed worth and greatness. 

And again, when the precious dust w^as borne so ten- 
derly, so regretfully, so proudly, through mourning States, 
how the people, of every rank and condition, crowded to 
the roadsides but to see the funeral train, and in the great 
cities, which deemed it a high privilege to hold the sacred 
relics for one short day in their storied halls, what multi- 
tudes joined in the sad processions, or gazed on the benig- 
nant features of the dead ! 

Nor was the mourning confined to a single continent. 
From the farthest corners of the globe the echoes of our 
lamentation are still repeated to us. In the land of our 
fatliers,— that land which, in spite of temporary causes of 
alienation, is ever the nearest to our- affections after our 
own,-^the loss was felt as a domestic one; and from all 
classes, from the sovereign to the peasant, unprecedented 
honors were paid to the dead. In all our grief and disai> 



polntment, both at what was either the woful incapacity 
of the governing classes in EngUmd to understand the true 
nature of our struggle, or the proof that there is a natural 
alliance between aristocratic institutions and the most 
degrading system of human bondage beneath the sun; 
and, above all, at that strange perversity through which 
a nation so loud in its jDrofessions of philanthropy gave 
its sympathies to insurgents who strove to build up a na- 
tion on slavery as its chief corner-stone, let us never forget 
the noble band of scholars and thinkers, who, in evil report 
and obloquy, boldly espoused our cause, continuing fiiithful 
unto the end, and the still nobler company of the working- 
men of England,— nobler, for their testimony was borne 
in the face of famine and ruin,^ — who felt that ours was 
the cause of freedom everywhere, and scorned to buy their 
own comfort by assisting to fasten the fetters of the slave. 
And let us give even our old foes and slanderers the credit 
of being able to appreciate the virtue of success; not dis- 
trusting the sincerity with which the ribald reviler^f the 
good man who has gone from us has sung that beautiful and 
touching Palinodia, or even the time-serving ape of Jupiter 
Tonans has poured forth his posthumous praise. From RuS" 
sia, our faithful ally, whose good Emperor has consummated 
an act of emancipation which will enroll his name with Lin- 
coln's among the benefactors of mankind,— from Germany, 
taught his greatness and goodness by her many wander- 
ing sons who have found happy homes on our shores, — ' 
from France, still nursing the slumbering embers of free- 
dom, and still cherishing the remembrance of our old alli- 
ance, — from Italy, just perfecting, through man}^ suffer- 
ings, her union and nationality,- — ^from the descendants 
of the Hellenes, and from all the minor states of Eu- 
rope, — from the imperial city on the Golden Horn, — from 
Smyrna, where old Homer sang, — from the dwellers on 
the Nile, — from farthest India, and the islands of the 



8 

sea, — come the same accoi-dant strains of sympathy and 
sorrow and reverential praise. 

Taking into view both the depth of the lamentation and 
its universality, I run no hazard in asserting that never 
was man so mourned before. | 

And now that the first shock of our mighty sorrow is 
over, it is well to ask what it was in the character and the 
services of the departed statesman and magistrate that 
won for him this majestic testimonial of the tears of a na- 
tion and a world. It is because I deem that such an in- 
quiry will be instructive to us all, that T have yielded to 
your kind invitation to address you upon this theme. I 
shall, perhaps, best answer the question by successively 
reviewing some *of the prominent points in our lamented 
President's career. 

And first — a thing which is particularly instructive to 
us in this seat of learning — is the fact that he was so little 
indebted for his influence and his fame to those acquisi- 
tions and accomplishments to which we attach so high a 
value, and which it is one of the chief purposes of your 
being here to attain. The youngest of you has already 
enjoyed opportunities of instruction superior to any that 
ever fell to his lot. In classic and scientific lore, many of 
you are his superiors. Yet how paltry, how insignificant 
appear these accomplishments, when measured with the 
grandeur of his character ! With all our superior advan- 
tages, few of us can hope to approach the eminence to 
which his simple virtues raised this man of the people. It 
is well that our pride should be humbled by this thought; 
it is well that we should recognize the fact that, justly as 
we prize the graces of learning and culture, they are 
worthless dross when weighed against the higher though 
more homely qualities of truth and honesty and moral 
courage. 

But, while the example of the great departed rebukes 



9 

all undue pride of privilege, it incites us. at the same time, 
to diligence in the pursuit of mental culture, and bears 
witness to its value in fitting a man to discharge the great 
duties of life. For Abraham Lincoln, though no college 
had ever fostered and encouraged his literary pursuits, 
was a man of no mean education. That was a foul slander 
of our enemies which asserted that the American people 
had raised to their head an illiterate boor. Almost with- 
out aid, encouragement, or facilities, he had done for iiiin- 
self what, however great our facilities, each one of us is 
practically left alone to do for himself, — trained and culti- 
vated his mind, developed its powers, evoked its energies, 
less systematically, less extensively, less roundly, per- 
chance, than men on whose birth fair science smiled, — yet 
with results which were admirable in themselves, inde- 
pendent of the consideration of the difficulties triumphed 
over in their attainment. He mastered his own language 
so as to be able to express his thoughts in it with rare 
clearness, force, and point; and generally — although some- 
times adopting phrases which a more cultivated taste 
would reject — with great propriety of diction, rising not 
unfrequently into a nervous eloquence which the greatest 
masters of speech have hardly surpassed. In diction, as 
well as in grandeur of sentiment, the closing paragraph of 
his address at the consecration of the National Cemetery 
at Gettysburg is worthy to be ranked with the funeral 
oration of Pericles, the noblest example of ancient ora- 
tory ; and many passages might be culled from his speeches 
and public papers which any man might be proud to have 
written. In mathematical science, his attainments were 
by no means inconsiderable. Arithmetic itself, which he 
mastered in his second school, is no poor instrument of 
mental culture; he made himself, moreover, an accom- 
plished surveyor; and geometry,— a science second to none 
in its power to develop and strengthen the mind, — he stu- 



10 

died with such ardent lo-ve and diligence that a discerning 
friend of his attributed to its influence one of his most 
striking mental characteristics ; " a logical turn of mind, 
which followed unwaveringly every link in the chain of 
thought on any sul^ect which he was called on to investi- 
gate/' Again, the study of the law, one of the noblest of 
human sciences, and one in which he made great profi- 
ciency, is in itself an education. Nor must I omit to speak 
of what I rank among the proudest distinctions and noblest 
fruits of free institutions, — the educating power which is 
involved in the political activity required of the citizen. 
Frequently called upon to take part in the decision of 
public matters of the gravest import, the American free- 
man is compelled by natural curiosity, as well as by the 
highest motives of duty, to endeavor to understand the 
true nature of the points at issue, and the great principles 
of political science on which they should be decided. He 
weighs the arguments of contending parties, as presented 
at public gatherings, or through the press, by which he is 
sometimes brought into communion with the foremost 
minds of the land; he discusses them with his companions 
amidst the daily avocations of life ; and, so far as he has 
opportunity, he is prompted to compare them with the 
lessons of history and the teachings of the wise men of old. 
Our municipal institutions, and the nice gradations by 
which we rise from township to county, state, and nation, 
afford, in their various offices, a school of training by which 
the humblest citizen may be fitted to become the ruler of 
the land. 'No university in the world presents such a course 
of instruction in the theory and practice of political science, 
as our institutions bring home to every citizen. We cannot 
boast that the lesson is always correctly learned, that the 
right answer is always given to the problem before us; butj 
as an educating agency, as a means of developing the in- 
tellectual energy and acumen of the whole people, we can 



11 

hardty over-estimate the efficiency and tlic value of this 
feature in our political system. Abraham Lincoln tcjok the 
full course in this college of the people. In early manliood 
he was conspicuous in his neighborhood as an adherent of 
the political principles of Henry Clay. He served as a 
representative both in the legislature of his State and in 
the National Congress ] he was a candidate for elector in 
six successive Presidential elections, and before one of them 
he traversed the whole State of Illinois and part of In- 
diana, addressing large gatherings of the people in favor 
of the measures of the Whig party and its candidate, the 
gallant statesman of Kentucky. After the rise of the Ee- 
publican party, he canvassed his State on several occasions 
in favor of its principles with great ability and success. 
Everybody remembers the friendly but si^irited contest 
between him and Senator Douglas in 1858, in which his 
abilities stood triumphantly the test of comparison with 
one of the most adroit of debaters and practised of politi- 
cians ; at the same time that the largeness and soundness 
of the views of public policy he enunciated attracted the 
attention of the countr}^, and did much to secure for him 
his subsequent nomination and election as President. His 
speech in New York, early in the year 1860, shows how 
thoroughly he had studied the constitutional histor}^ of the 
country, and the sagacity with which he could detect the 
sophisms of demagogues and of the slaves of slavery. Truly, 
a man who, in a nation like ours, and in a period like that 
through which Ave have been passing for the last thirty 
years, with no motive but pure patriotism and the love of 
truth, brings, as did Abraham Lincoln, a clear head and an 
honest heart to the diligent consideration of great political 
questions, bearing his part in the advocacy of correct views 
before the people, and in the labors of legislation, trains 
and develops some of his noblest powers, and acquires, in 
the school of practice, an education which might well be 



12 

envied by many a frequenter of academic libraries and lec- 
ture-rooms. 

I assert, then, that our hero was a man of no mean 
education. Yet, I will not deny that in his speeches and 
his writings, the want of scholastic training is sometimes 
manifest, and that I could wish that to him had been 
granted the graces of more finished culture. But, as I 
said before, how petty are such graces in comparison with 
those grand qualities of head and heart which rendered 
him the one man worthy to lead our nation through its 
agony of trial, and have made his name immortal ! In all 
things, moreover, the great law of compensation prevails. 
If what we might call more favorable circumstances had 
endowed him with all the learning of the schools, he 
might have lost one of the most valuable parts of his 
education. For education is not simply the training of the 
mind in literature and science. It comprehends, in its 
true sense, everything that develops the powers of man 
and evokes his energies ; everything that shapes his pur- 
poses, fixes his habits, and moulds his character, whether 
in his physical, his intellectual, or his moral being. And 
Lincoln had, in his youth, three schoolmasters, whose 
lessons perchance he could not afford to lose, even if the 
highest refinements of the university were offered him 
in exchange, — three stern, but profitable teachers. Poverty, 
Hardship, and Toil. These knit his frame, and gave him 
that strength of nerve and sinew, without which he could 
never have borne the burden of those cares of state, the 
heaviest ever laid on mortal brain ; these taught him 
energy and self-reliance, — two of the best lessons man 
can learn, — endowed him with that strength which can 
only be gained by surmounting obstacles, — gave him a 
knowledge of men and things, such as few attain, except 
those who like him have to hew their own pathway 
through the forests of life, — and taught him to sympathize 



13 

with the toiling millions, who constitute the larger portion 
of our race, 

Nay, even as regards his intellectual culture, in this age, 
when the multiplicity of books presents such strong temp- 
tations to superficial reading, and gaining a smattering of 
many things rather than proficiency in a few, that was 
hardly an unkind fortune which supplied his eager mind 
in boyhood with few books, especially when they were so 
fit : the Bible, Pilgrim's Progress, iEsop's Fables, the Bio- 
graphies of Washington, Clay, and Franklin, and Plu- 
tarch's Lives of the illustrious men of Greece and Eome I 
To these books, thoroughly read, some of them over and 
over again, and well digested, as they were, how much 
may he have been indebted lor that fixedness of moral and 
religious principle, that pure and lofty patriotism, that 
shrewdness and sagacity, and that fondness for apologue 
and racy, telling illustration, for which he was so dis- 
tinguished. 

But neither the advantages of poverty, nor those of 
wealth; neither hardships nor abundant facilities, develop 
a mind and character nobly and well, unless there be a 
persistent will, and an earnest diligence behind. Herein 
is the true secret of Lincoln's advancement and success; 
herein is he an example for all of us, whether our circum- 
stances are alike or unlike his. I grant that he was 
endo-sved by nature Avith a mind of rare sagacity, penetra- 
tion, clearness, and vigor. Providence, that designed him 
for great services, had given him capacities for service 
beyond those of most men. But, in all cases, what men 
are, depends less upon the measure of their natural endow- 
ments, than upon what they do for themselves. It is in 
the earnestness of his self-culture, and in his faithfulness 
in occupying the talents with which he was intrusted, that 
Lincoln merits our highest praise and our diligent imita- 
tion. Few men have ever exhibited s^reater energy of 



14 

character and persistency of purpose. It is recorded of 
him that, from childhood, he never allowed himself to hear 
anything, or read anything, without thoroughly under- 
standing it ; and " when, in listening to a conversation, he 
had any difficulty in ascertaining what people meant, if he 
retired to rest, he could not sleep till he tried to under- 
stand the precise points intended ; and when understood? 
to convey it in a clear manner to those \vho had listened 
with him/' He early adopted the practice of writing out 
a synopsis of everything he read ; one of the best aids in 
fixing facts and arguments in the memory. How many of 
us can boast habits of close attention and diligent research, 
which, like his, never allow anything to pass us uncom. 
prehended and unmastered ? Observe, again, the diligence 
with which, under the most untoward circumstances, — 
studying, in a floorless cabin, by the light of a log fire, — 
he learned to read and write, unravelled the mysteries of 
arithmetic and grammar; mastered, in early manhood, the 
sublime truths of geometry, and at last, the profound 
science of law, — walking to Springfield, twenty-two miles,' 
and back again in the same day, to bring home the four 
volumes of Blackstone's Commentaries, which were kindly 
lent him. In preparinghimself for his late chosen profession, 
with resolute purpose he denied himself many social enjoy- 
ments, and pursued his studies while others revelled, or 
while others slept. " You will find the whole of my early 
life," said Lincoln to a friend, " in a single line of Gray's 
Elegy, 

' The short and simple annals of the poor.' " 

But if short and simple, in his case the annals were 
crowded to glorious fulness, by the earnest labors which 
built up nobleness, wisdom, and strength. His successful 
career is but another illustration of the truth, so old and 
trite, but which most of us need to have dinned in our 



15 

ears again, and again, and again, that, wliilcnotliing great 
can be done without diligent labor, energy, and perse- 
verance, — with them, there is nothing too arduous for a 
manly soul. 

But especially does our fallen chief deserve our admira- 
tion, for the integrity of his moral character, and the 
generous qualities of his heart. " He is the best man," 
said Secretary Seward, "that I ever knew;" and this is 
the uniform testimony of those most familiar with him in 
his daily life. In childhood and youth he laid the founda- 
tions of these, the sure pillars of his greatness. An obedient 
and loving son, whose tongue never uttered a ribald jest, 
an oath, a slander, or a lie; as he grew up to manhood, he 
passed unscathed through all temptations to intemperance 
and excess, and his incorruptible honesty became a pro- 
verb among his companions. At the same time, he had 
none of the austerity by which the fair face of virtue is 
sometimes clouded ; cheerful, genial, witty, he was a good 
^ftllow and a kindly friend. His heart was full of kind 
xeeling for everybody; and his benevolence and his sym- 
pathies were never appealed to in vain. 

Let us consider him next in his character as a statesman 
and a patriot. The responsibilities of American citizen- 
ship did not rest upon him in vain. From his earliest 
manhood, he made it one of his first objects to understand 
the nature of the political questions presented to the peo- 
ple for their decision, and to gain sound views in regard 
to the great principles of government and political science. 
In the foundation of our national government, he reve- 
rently recognized the hand of Providence ; and with so- 
lemn earnestness he asked the question, What are the 
merits and what the defects of our political system ? He 
was not long in seeing: that for our best success as a nation 
we are indebted to our recognition, — in conjunction with 
respect for law and the maintenance of public order, — ot 
the Christian principle of the dignity of man as man; and 



16 

that it is just where we have forgotten or disregarded that 
principle, that our worst faihires have arisen. When he was 
received in Independence Hall, on his way to the Caj^itol, 
he said: "I have often inquired of myself what great 
principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long 
together. It was not the mere matter of the separation 
of the Colonies from the mother-land, but that sentiment 
in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, 
not alone to the people of this country, but, I hope, to the 
world for all future time. It was that which gave pro- 
mise that in due time the weights would be lifted from the 
shoulders of all men." And previously, when he canvass- 
ed Illinois with Senator Douglas, he had said, after quoting 
the eloquent statement of the equal rights of all men to 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which was pro- 
claimed to the world by the signers of the Declaration of 
Independence : " This was their majestic interpretation of 
the economy of the universe. This was their lofty, and 
wise, and noble understanding of the justice of the Crea- 
tor to His creatures. Yes, gentlemen, to all His creatures, 
to the whole great family of man. In their enlightened be- 
lief, nothing stamped with the Divine image and likeness 
was sent into the world to be trodden on, and degraded, and 
imbruted by its fellows. They grasped not only the race 
of men then living, but they reached forward and seized 

upon the farthest posterity Wise statesmen as they 

were, they knew the tendency of prosperity to breed ty- 
rants, and so they established these great self-evident 
truths, that when, in the distant future, some man, some 
faction, some interest, should set up the doctrine that none 
but rich men, or none but white men, or none but Anglo- 
Saxon white men, were entitled to life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness, their posterity might look up again 
to the Declaration of Independence, and take courage to 
renew the battle which their fathers began, so that truth, 



17 

and justice, and mercy, and all the humane and Christian 
virtues might not be extinguished from the land; so that 
no man would hereafter dare to limit and circumscribe the 
great principles on which the temple of liberty was being 
built." 

But in his true democracy — how different from the spu- 
rious creed which has often claimed that name ! — he was 
no extremist, or agrarian, or fanatic. He would not pull 
down the great, but he would raise the lowly. Those were 
wise words that he addressed, after an allusion to the riots 
in New York, to a committee of workingmen Avho visited 
him while he was President : 

" Property is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; 
it is a positive good in the world. That some should be 
rich, shows that others may become rich, and hence is just 
encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him 
who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let 
him labor diligently and build one for himself; thus, by 
example, assuring that his own shall be safe from violence 
when built." 

Nor did he suppose that the equality before the law 
which our fathers declared to be the birthright of all men, 
implied equality of merit and of claims to distinction and 
influence, any more than it does of mental endowment, or 
physical strength, or inherited wealth. Virtue and wis- 
dom he recognized as the qualities which should determine 
precedence among men ; he acknowledged, too, that the 
due influence of learning and of wealth is founded in the 
very nature of things ; he only contended that no artifi- 
cial, factitious advantages, should be allowed to any set or 
class of men ; that neither race, nor creed, nor lineage, 
should draw distinctions between men in the eyes of the 
law; but, in his own clear and simple words, "that the 
weights should be lifted from all shoulders, and that all 
men should have an equal chance." 

2 



18 

Ko wonder, with his clear head and sound logic, that 
he very early saw the flagrant inconsistency of human 
slavery with the theory of our institutions, as well as its 
inherent injustice. One of his first political acts, in the 
legislature of Illinois in 1837, was a protest against slavery; 
in the national Congress he was an earnest opponent of 
the encroachments of this fell system ; and in his political 
campaigns, he was faithful to his anti-slavery principles, 
even in the most uncultivated and benighted districts, 
where their advocacy called forth the bitterest prejudice 
and odium. 

Yet, in his opposition to slavery, as in all things, he 
showed a just moderation. He scrupulously respected the 
constitutional rights of the States, he claimed no right to 
interfere with slavery, except so far as, transcending the 
limits of State politics, it claimed to control the policy of 
the nation, or demanded permission to extend itself over 
territories as yet unpolluted by the steps of a bondman. 
And in thus restricting the progress of slavery, he was 
but following the example of the framers of the Constitu- 
tion and the founders of the Government. In his speech 
at the Cooper Institute, he has collected the facts on this 
subject, showing that the views of the EejDublican party 
were simply a conservative return to the principles of our 
early statesmen. Southern as well as Northern. Indeed, it 
was from the recorded views and acts of the great states- 
men of the South, that he imbibed his opposition to sla- 
very, and his determination to resist its progress. 

" Great "Washington's indignant shade 
Forever urged him on ; 
He heard, by Monticello's glade, 
The voice of Jeflerson." 

But what is particularly admirable, is the fact that his 
hatred of slavery never degenerated into hatred of the 
slaveholder. He waged war with sin, not with persons ; 



19 

recognizing the truth that men might blindly uphold what 
he saw was wrong, and yet be as good men as himself. 
Both the firmness and moral courage with which he main- 
tained his views in the face of obloquy, and the Christian 
gentleness and charity with which he held them, deserve 
the grateful recognition of every section in our reunited 
land. 

And if Lincoln had the moderation of charity, he had 
the moderation of wisdom as well. He belonired to that 
best class of statesmen in free, constitutional govern- 
ments, the advocates of Conservative Progress. To re- 
tain all that is good in old institutions, to get rid of all 
that is bad, and adopt whatever improvements the times 
demand, yet never being in too great haste to innovate, 
and always paying due regard to the claims of prescrip- 
tion and usage, — this was, in brief, his political creed. 

His childhood spent in a slave State, his manhood in a 
free, — well versed in our constitutional history, and undeii- 
standing both the nature of our institutions and the cha- 
racter of our people, with sagacious prescience he foresaw 
the inevitable conflict which must arise between institu- 
tions founded upon slave labor and those founded upon 
paid labor, and foretold that the latter would be victo- 
rious. Firm was his faith in G-od and in the right; hence 
was it that in the four long, weary, anxious years of civil 
war, he bore up trustful and undaunted while so many 
doubted and feared. 

Let us consider him, further, in that capacity, in which 
he goes down in history immortal, as the ruler and pre- 
server of his country, through fearful storm and periL In 
this position he had a conspicuous stage for the exercise of 
that wisdom and those virtues which distinguished him, 
but which, had they not been called forth and tested by 
such occasion and opportunity, might have made him but 
the "village Hampden," the great man of some little com- 



20 

munity, instead of one of the foremost figures in the grand 
pageant of human history. 

The very mode in which he entered upon the duties of 
his office, inspired good men with confidence. It was plain 
that he solemnly felt the vast responsibilities imposed 
upon him, and that he looked devoutly to the Supreme 
Euler of the world for direction, wisdom, and strength. 
In that touching and tender farewell which he addressed 
to his old friends and neighbors in Springfield, assembled 
at the railway station, on his departure for Washington, 
he declared that he placed all his reliance in the Divine 
Being for support, adding these memorable words: "I 
hope that you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive 
that Divine assistance, without which I cannot succeed, 
hut with which success is certain." The sincerity and the 
depth of his trust in the Almighty, appears in frequent de- 
clarations in the addresses he gave to public bodies and 
assemblies on his progress to the Capitol, as well as during 
the course of his tried and arduous administration. 

Again, he had confidence in the substantial good sense, 
intelligence, and virtue of the people, — a confidence in 
which many timid men were sadly wanting, but which the 
event proved not to be misplaced. 

Another trait which he had occasion to exhibit before 
reaching Washington, was that of personal courage, — not 
mere brute courage, but the courage which springs from 
moral principle, — a noble trait of character, when employ- 
ed to lead a man boldly and unflinchingly in the path of 
duty. The deep-laid plot to assassinate him near Balti- 
more, or on his passage through that city, detected through 
the vigilance of President Felton, of the Philadelphia and 
Baltimore Eailroad, was communicated tohim, if I am not 
mistaken, before he made that speech in Independence 
Hall, on the birthday of Washington, in which he said, — 
speaking of that principle which was the central point of 



21 

his political creed, the equal rights of all men to life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of hap])inoss, — "If this country cannot be 
saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say 
I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender 
it/' soon afterwards adding, "I have said nothing but 
what I am willing to live by, and, if it be the pleasure of 
Almighty Clod, to die by." He had, very naturally, asked 
himself the question, "Why is it that any party of my fel- 
low-citizens, for the welfare of all of whom I have the same 
sincere desire, should seek my life?" and the answer had 
been, "Because I am the advocate of those principles of 
impartial freedom which lie at the foundation of our whole 
fabric of government." We may imagine the earnestness 
with which he said to himself, "Never, never will I surren- 
der those principles: I would rather be assassinated on 
this spot." His were all the resolution, the heroism, the 
devotion, and the self-sacrifice of the martyr; and when 
he went to our Capitol, and all the time he felt, and 
thought, and worked for us in the chair of state, he was 
holding his life in his hands. Lover, too, of the people as 
he was, confiding and trusting in them almost without 
measure, we can imagine the grief he must have felt at 
learning that any of them could be so base as to plot 
against him, whose sole aim was to do them all the good 
in his power. But this was grief, rather than indignation. 
Who doubts that for the conspirators themselves, his would 
have been the sublime prayer, "Father, forgive them, for 
they know not what they do!" Those of us whose privi- 
lege it was to gaze upon his face as he passed our station 
on the same morning in which he had made that speech in 
Independence Hall, remember an expression of mingled 
earnestness, tenderness, and solemnity, which inspired 
every beholder with the utmost confidence in the man, 
and almost with veneration and awe. 

I may remark, if you will allow me a moment's digres- 



22 

sion, that there was in the face of our martyred Presi- 
dent, and in his soft, lustrous, and beautiful eyes, a 
delicate, indefinable expression of intelligence, as well as 
of goodness, to which none of his photographs — with all 
their "brutal fidelity," as Groldwin Smith so well calls it, 
to the mere material features, without the light of the eyes 
and the play of the soul, — do anj^thing like justice. Every 
discerning beholder would "easily believe him a good man, 
gladly a great man." 

It was with great reluctance, as I happen to know, 
that he consented to the change in the mode and time 
of his journey, by which the foul plot was frustrated. He 
insisted upon adhering to the published programme, until 
overborne by the few gentlemen in this vicinity who were 
cognizant of the conspiracy, and finally by messengers 
sent to Harrisburg by General Scott and Senator Seward. 
It is needless to repeat the fact, that there is no truth 
whatever in the story of his going to Washington in dis- 
guise. That mode of seeking escape from peril has been 
recently illustrated by the champion of a different civili- 
zation, — illustrated, too, in a mode surpassing the wild- 
est inventions of sensation penny-a-liners in the case 
of President Lincoln. In his whole life at Washington, 
surrounded by concealed and open foes, and often within 
striking distance from the camp of the enemy; in the free 
access to his person allowed at all times; in his walks, 
often late at night, between his house and the departments 
of his secretaries; in hi^ visit to Eichmond, before the fires 
of intense hatred had had time to smoulder, he manifested 
the same confiding fearlessness. He was too good a man 
himself, to be very suspicious of others; and he was too 
much engrossed in his cares for his country to have much 
thought for his personal safety. 

And this was but one of the modes in which he showed 
his entire unselfishness. Truly, our honest, homely, home- 
spun hero, was as selfless as the Arthur of romance. In 



23 

one of his addresses to the people in 1858, he said : "You 
may do anything with me you choose, if you will but heed 
these sacred principles. You may not only defeat me for 
the Senate, but you may take me and put me to death. 
While pretending no indifference to earthly honors, I do 
claim to be actuated in this contest by somethin"- hi<»-her 
than an anxiety for office. I charge you to drop every 
paltry and insignificant thought for any man's success. 
It is nothing; I am nothing; Judge Douglas is nothing. 
But do not destroy that immortal emblem of humanity, 
the Declaration of American Independence." The same 
feeling of the insignificance of self as compared witli the 
great principles at stake in his election, appears in his 
public expressions on various occasions, on both of the 
times that he was chosen President. The honors which 
were given him he considered as j^aid only to the majesty 
of the nation, and the gj^eat cause which it was given him 
to represent. When informed of his late, election, on the 
night of election day, he said : " I am thankful to God for 
this approval of the people ; but while deeply grateful for 
this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my heart 
my gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. 
I do not impugn the motives of any one opposed to me. 
It is no pleasure for me to triumph over any one, but I 
give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the 
people's resolution to stand by free government and the 
rights of humanity." 

As a ruler, Lincoln exhibited the prime virtue of a con- 
stitutional magistrate, respect for the law, and constant 
recognition of all the rights guaranteed to the people. He 
v^ould not even do good, if it led him beyond the line 
within which his just authority was circumscribed. But 
at the same time he was no martinet, no legal pedant. 
Sagaciously reading the true spirit of the Constitution, he 
saw that it empowered him to suspend the writ of habeas 



24 

corpus, and to use all the means for the suppression of the 
rebellion which are recognized by the common law of civil 
societies. And when States, by plunging into war, had 
forfeited the guarantees of the Constitution to loyal and 
peaceful States, he used those rights with which the na- 
tional authority is invested by the law of nature and of 
nations, gladly availing himself of this legitimate authority 
to perform one of the sublimest acts in human history, — the 
act which struck the shackles from four millions of slaves. 
Earely has the opportunity of a deed of such sublime be- 
neficence, such far-reaching consequences, such undying 
renown, been granted to a ruler among men; but if the 
occasion was a rare one, it found an agent of rare worth and 
fitness. Fitting indeed it was, that he whose whole political 
life had been spent in the consistent advocacy of impartial 
liberty and the rights of man, the great longing of whose 
soul had been, as he himself declared, " that all men, 
everj^where, might be free," whose sympathy for the op- 
pressed, moreover, was so single and so pure, untainted 
with partisan feeling or sectional bitterness, with aught of 
malice or uncharitableness, should have been selected as 
the instrument in that w^onderful work of Divine Provi- 
dence. And patient, tried, laborious as he was, bent down 
beneath his fearful weight of anxieties, so that a touching 
sadness became the master expression of a face which 
faithfully told the feelings of the heart, grateful let us be 
that he was permitted the high and holy joy, the deep, su- 
preme satisfaction, which must have given the hour in which 
he wrote the Proclamation of Freedom, a solemn happiness 
well worth the price of even a lifetime of pain and care. I 
deem it by much the grandest feature in this act of emanci- 
pation, as far as the President was concerned, that it was 
both the fruit and the triumph of the moral and religious 
principles upon the subject of slavery, which he had con- 
scientiously adopted and faithfuly maintained. It was the 



25 

triumph of Eight, not merely of expediency or of necessity, 
military or political ; but simply as an act of wise and 
successful statesmanship, leaving out of view higher con- 
siderations, it is one of the most brilliant in history, and 
will carry the name of its author with honor down to the 
end of time. 

Another quality in which President Lincoln was pre- 
eminent is his rare clemency. It was a great pleasure 
to him, when he could do it consistently with his duty, to 
sign a pardon or reprieve. " It makes me rested, after a 
hard day's work," he said, " if I can find some good excuse 
for saving a man's life, and I go to bed happy as I think 
how joyous the signing of my name will make him and 
his family and his friends." No less noteworthy is his 
utter freedom from any feeling of hatred or malice or re- 
venge. Deeply as he felt the guilt of rebellion, he pre- 
ferred to look upon the rebels as misguided, rather than 
wicked men ; judging not lest he should himself be judged. 
But what is particularly admirable is that this gentleness 
was unmixed with weakness. He was as firm and unyield- 
ing, as persistent and uncompromising, as any of the re- 
nowned men of iron mould, the Cromwells or the Jacksons 
of histor}^ ; but no other ruler, least of all amidst the 
strife and bitterness of civil war, was ever so forgiving 
and so merciful. In giving him this j)raise, I will make 
no abatements. I consider this part of his character as an 
application of the spirit of Christianity in the government 
of nations, worthy to be an example for all ages. And 
while I trust that all that justice really requires will be 
done, in metino; out to the leaders of the rebeUion such 
punishment as shall best conduce to the prevention of 
future revolts, I trust, too, that in all the councils of our 
rulers such mercy will be ever exhibited as is worthy of a 
Christian people and an enlightened age. 

Another feature in our late President's administration 



26 

deserves our cordial acknowledgment; I mean his full re- 
cognition of the rights of conscience, even when they stood 
in apparent opposition to measures which he considered it 
his highest duty to adopt. Without question, the govern- 
ment of the United States, in the recent rebellion, made 
the fullest recognition which has ever been made of the 
right of men to be relieved from military service, if they 
feel that their duty to God and their own consciences for- 
bids them to take part in war. Much of the praise for 
this wise action is due to Congress, much to the Secretary 
of War, and, perhaps, other members of the Cabinet; but 
undoubtedly much also to the late President himself. He 
did not sneer at scruples which he did not himself enter- 
tain ; but understanding them fully, and respecting their 
source, he received every application for relief with kind- 
ness and attention, declaring that "for those appealing to 
him on conscientious grounds, he should do the best he 
could in his own conscience, and his oath to the law." 

Of high qualities of statesmanship in time of peace, our 
late Chief Magistrate gave clear indications, although he 
had little opportunity to exercise them. Had he been per- 
mitted to lead us through the next four years, I cannot 
doubt that he would have shown great ability in the work 
of reorganization, and in fostering the great industrial in- 
terests of the nation, summoning 

" War and waste, 
To fruitful strifes, and rivalries of peace." 

As a member of Congress, he had been an able advo- 
cate of a wise system of internal improvements ; and in 
almost the last hour of his life, he sent a message to the 
miners of Nevada and Colorado, which evinced the far- 
sighted policy with which he intended to promote emigra- 
tion to those regions, and assist in developing their re- 



27 

sources, until America should become " the treasury of the 
world." 

To sj^eak of minor merits in such a man would be to 
wrono' his virtues, were it not that it is in little thinirs af- 
ter all that much of the best excellence of human charac- 
ter consists. Let me remind you, then, of bis patience, 
and diligence, his habit of inquiring into the whole of a 
subject, and examining it on all sides, the courtesy and 
attention with which he listened to the opinions of his op- 
ponents, his affability to all comers, his uniform good tem- 
per, kindness, and generosity. 

But his highest merit as a statesman is the same as his 
highest merit as a man, — that his one end and aim was to 
do what is right. " It is my earnest desire," he said to a 
delegation that visited him in 1862, " to know the will of 
Providence in this matter. And if I can learn what it is, 
I will do it." To another delegation, who urged him to 
emancipate the slaves, he said, "I can assure you that the 
subject is on my mind, by day and night, more than any 
other. Whatever shall appear to be God's will, I will do." 
To some men, who, in 1854, while condemning the repeal of 
the Missouri Compromise, were still unwilling to advocate 
its restoration, lest they should "be thrown in company 
with the abolitionists," he said, "Stand with anybody that 
stands right. Stand with him while he is right, and part 
with him when he goes wrong." Speaker Colfax reports 
that once, speaking of an eminent statesman, the Presi- 
dent said: "When a question confronts him, he always 
and naturally argues it from the stand-point of which is 
the better policy; but with me' my only desire is to see 
what is right." "And this," the Speaker adds, "is the 
key to his life." 

I come now to consider President Lincoln in the highest 
of all relations, — those he bore to his Maker. And first, 
from what I can learn of his life, I cannot doubt that he 



28 

was always a religious man. Taught at his mother's knee 
to pray, from childhood an habitual reader of the Holy 
Bible, accustomed to test all measures by their conformity 
to the will of God and His justice, careful to walk before 
men in accordance with His law, looking up to Him with 
faith and confidence as the Preserver and Protector of 
good men and just nations, his whole life and character 
exhibited the restraining and the moulding power of reli- 
gious principle. In speaking, afterwards, of the extraor- 
dinary difficulties at the beginning of his administration, 
he said: "I was early brought to a lively reflection, that 
nothing would succeed, without direct assistance of 
the Almighty. I have often wished that I was a more 
devout man than I am; nevertheless, amid the greatest 
difficulties of my administration, when I could not see any 
other resort, I would place my whole reliance in God, 
knowing all would go well, and that He would decide for 
the right." And oh ! happiest among all the thickly-clus- 
tered glories of his honored life, sweetest of the consola- 
tions which abide with us now that he is gone — chastened 
in the school of bitter trial and overwhelming care, and 
visited in mercy by the Spirit of Him whose righteousness 
he strove to fulfil before men, ere the end came, — so sad, but 
sad only for us, — he could say, " I know that my Redeemer 
liveth," he knew, as we reverently trust, that his sins had 
been washed away, he loved his Saviour, lived in con- 
stant communion with Him, and received at His hands the 
bounties of grace, mercy, and peace. 

For such a man, for such faithful and unprecedented ser- 
vices, had America no better a reward to give than a bul- 
let, shot from behind his back? But I cannot trust myself 
to speak of that scene to which my thoughts never revert 
without a chill of horror. "Useless" was the deed, even 
for the vile cause it was intended to serve; and nameless 
be the doer forevermore. I cannot conceive how any man 



29 

of heart or sense could yield to the prurient cwriosity 
which creates a demand for the portraits of the wretched 
malefactor, or the details of his disreputable life. lieturn- 
ing to the question I have asked, I vindicate my country 
from the charge of ingratitude and insensibility. The 
anomalous act of a moral maniac shall not obscure the 
splendor of that tribute which she pays her preserver from 
her heart of hearts. And of him, fondly and regretfully 
as we may picture the happiness which might have await- 
ed him in fovir years of peaceful rule, and afterwards in 
honored retirement, sinking at last, like Washington, in 
ripe old age, to rest, amidst a nation's blessings and a na- 
tion's tears, yet may we not say, as was said of the great 
and good Agricola, in Eome, "Tu vero felix, non vita3 tan- 
tum claritate, sed etiam opportunitate mortis." "Happy 
not only in the glory of thy life, but also in the timeliness 
of thy death." The work was substantially accomplished, 
his country was saved; and a joy unsj^eakable, as those 
who saw his face report, had already chased from his coun- 
tenance the clouds of sorrow and of care which through 
four years of agony had been gathering upon it. He had 
walked the streets of the capital of the rebellion, without 
the pride, but with the power, of a conqueror. He had 
left his countrymen, in his last Inaugural Address, a most 
precious legacy, of all state papers the most fully per- 
meated with the spirit of Christianity. His last signature 
to an act of Congress, confirmed the ordinance that our 
coinage should henceforth bear the motto, "In God we 
trust j" his last message was one of sympathy with the 
toiling miners of the far West, and of joyful anticipation of 
the development of the vast mineral resources of our land; 
and his last act, through which his life was taken, was 
prompted, against much reluctancy, by the kindly conside- 
ration, "I should be unwilling to have the people disap- 
pointed." And so, trusting God and loving his Eedeemer, 



30 

rejoicing in the coming restoration of the nation, and the 
freedom of the slave, looking forward with patriotic hope 
and pride to the happiness and prosperity which shall bless 
the reunited land, now that the great source of bitterness 
and contention has been removed, without a taint of per- 
sonal triumph, without one selfish, or revengeful feeling, 
" with malice towards none, with charity to all," by a pain- 
less transition he entered into rest. 

It was in our day, Students of Haverford, that this man 
lived, and toiled for us, and died. At the time of life in 
which the most vivid and the most lasting impressions are 
made upon the mind, you have seen his whole career as 
ruler of the land, and have watched with intensest interest 
every step in the great struggle which will mark an epoch 
in the history of our race. And is there no responsibility 
attending the high privilege of contemplating such a cha- 
racter in our own time, and having had before our eyes 
such an example? Are we not rebuked in the presence of 
that perfect manliness and integrity, that simplicity and 
singleness of purpose, that modesty and unselfishness, 
that energy and fidelity to duty, that love of the right and 
supreme desire to do the right, that faith in the people and 
in liberal principles of government, that faith, above all, in 
his Saviour and his God? Shall we not strive to appro- 
priate to ourselves some portion of the lessons taught by his 
simple and majestic virtues? Shall we not strive to be 
w^orthy of such a leader, and such a model ? Not ours to 
fill so conspicuous a station, or to play so important a part 
in the afi'airs of men; yet the same qualities which fitted 
him for his sphere, will fit us for our spheres, and our only 
duty is to do faithfully that work which is given us to do. 
How would he have acted in the place of any one of us, — 
how borne himself amid the trials and responsibilities by 
which we are from time to time surrounded? I would not 
speak in adulation of a mortal man. Human as he was, he 



31 

must have had his share of the weaknesses of human na- 
ture, although it is hard to find such in his character. If 
he could speak to us from the tomb, he would say, " PVjHow 
me onl}^ so far as I have followed Christ." Yet luinuin ex- 
amples of excellence are salutary in encouraging us and 
stimulating us in our attempts to imitate the highest ex- 
ample; and, for some of the noblest traits of human cha- 
racter, whei'e shall we find a better model? 

I cannot forbear alluding, before I close, to a few of the 
lessons which we may derive from the great conflict of the 
last four years, in which our fallen chief held the foremost 
place. 

The first, — and it is one which we would do well to heed 
in the still undecided problems before us, — is the futility 
of all attempts to allay contentions or avert difficulties by 
compromises and concessions, at the cost of any sacrifice 
of the eternal j^rinciples of justice. This was the sad mis- 
take even of many honest men, who fancied that peace 
and safety might be bought by quietly waiving opposition 
to the extension of slavery over free and uncontaminated 
ground. It should have been enough for such men to con- 
sider that, by thus waiving our opposition to bad measures, 
which we had both the legal right and the power to pre- 
vent, we became sharers in the crime. 

Again, how monstrous was the delusion of those men 
w^ho talked of silencing all agitation, by repealing every 
restriction, and allowing slavery to have its own way in 
all things ! I cannot better expose this delusion than in 
words which Lincoln uttered in one of his public addresses 
in 1854 : " Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's 
nature; opposition to it in his love of justice. These ju'ln- 
ciples are in eternal antagonism; and when brought into 
collision, so fiercely as slavery extension brings them, 
shocks, throes, and convulsions must ceaselessly follow. 
Eepeal the Missouri Compromise; repeal all compromise; 



32 

repeal the Declaration of Independence; repeal all past 
history, — you still cannot repeal human nature. It still will 
be the abundance of man's heart that slavery extension is 
wrong; and out of the abundance of his heart his mouth 
will continue to speak." 

Another lesson which we have learned in bitter experience 
is the ruinous consequences of false political j^rincijoles. The 
cause of the war was undoubtedly the aggressive spirit of 
slavery; but the great instrument through which the re- 
bellion was set in motion and organized was the pernicious 
doctrine of State sovereignty as paramount to the national 
sovereignty. A doctrine so opposed to the first principles 
of political science, and so fatal to all national security and 
stability, it would be hard to devise. Yet, enforced by 
selfish interest and party feeling, this fatal dogma was 
adopted by large bodies of men, and even whole communi- 
ties, till the humiliating spectacle was presented to the 
world — to my mind the crowning degradation of our long 
years of base subserviency and political bondage — of a 
man who claimed to be the Chief Magistrate of the w^hole 
country, sworn to preserve, protect, and defend its Con- 
stitution and its laws, — uttering, in a message to. Con- 
gress, a declaration so palpably absurd as this, that while 
the several States had no right to leave the Union, the 
General Government had no right and no power to prevent 
their leaving the Union I 

Another delusion, founded in gross ignorance of the 
political history of the country, was the denial of the right 
of the Government to prohibit slaveholders to take their 
"property," in the bodies of men, into the Territories. 
Another, the supposition that any series of concessions 
would satisfy the insatiable monster. Slavery, until the 
whole country was under his feet; not seeing, as did the 
clear head of the Western statesman, that, in the inevitable 
conflict between the two systems of civilization, one or the 



33 

otht^r must completely triumph, so that the country would 
either be all slave territory or all free. Another still, was 
distrust of the political virtue of the men of the free States, 
doubting their capacity of self-sacrificing patriotism, and 
deeming it possible that they would surrender their prin- 
ciples rather than their case. 

Still another lesson is found in the consideration that 
the bloody strife might have been averted, had the one 
party had from the first the firmness to insist upon the 
right, and the other the wisdom, confining itself to the 
sphere in which it was left free to act by the Constitution, 
to attempt no aggression which would excite the moral 
feeling and provoke the opposition of its neighbor. 

From all these facts I would draw a practical lesson for 
ourselves, — a lesson which I deem it an especial duty of 
ni}^ office as an instructor in a free land to enforce, — it is 
the duty which devolves upon every one of us, of studying 
carefully and thoroughly the character of our institutions 
and people, the true principles of government and social 
science, and the merits of the political measures from time 
to time in dispute before us. It is a sad thing for a man 7iot 
to understand his own times. Many a man will tell you with 
regret that he voted against President Lincoln at his first 
election from a mistaken conception of the condition of the 
country, of the character and purposes of the slave power, 
and of the policy of the different parties in the canvass. Let 
us strive to take such a wide, comprehensive, and impartial 
view of the field, in all future contests, as shall keep us from 
such error. To that end we should endeavor to attain sound 
judgments upon all the questions of political economy and 
national interests w^hich are likely to come up. And, for 
a practical rule to guide us, we can have no better than 
the maxim of our departed Chief, " Ask yourselves only 
which side is in the right." Be ours the spirit, and the faith, 
and the noble resolve which Lincoln has clothed in immor- 

3 



34 

tal words, — reversing, in the might and in the wisdom of 
simple goodness, one of the profoundest maxims of false 
state-craft, — ^^ Let us have faith that right makes might; 
and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty, as 
we understand it." 

Then, thou pure martyr in thy country's cause, martyr 
in the cause of divine justice and of human rights, if from 
thy example, enforced and hallowed by the shedding of 
thy blood, thy countrymen shall adopt this faith and be 
loyal to it in their lives; if, banishing all empty boasting 
and foolish pride, cherishing kindly feelings for all other 
nations, while true to the cause of Ireedom throughout the 
world, willing and anxious to improve and amend our own 
institutions, not deeming that we have already attained, 
faithful at all times to the principles of human rights on 
Avhich our Government is founded, and remembering that 
the same just Grod who has punished us for one sin will 
punish us for other sins if we are guilty of them, we strive 
to realize the ideal of a Christian state, deciding every 
public question by the highest rule of duty, and of duty 
alone, then shall we pay thee a tribute which thou wouldst 
have prized above all monuments and columns, all statues 
and inscriptions, all eulogy and renown. But there is one 
thing which we will not omit, as we strive to honor thy 
memory, and avenge thy death. It is to wage unceasing 
war with thy real assassin, who still stalks through the 
streets of yonder city, driving God's image, if cut in ebony, 
from the railway car; and still, appealing to the lowest 
and most vulgar ^^rejudice, denies the privilege of suffrage 
to all men, — however intelligent, virtuous, thrifty, pa- 
triotic, and wise, — whose skin God has made of a dif- 
ferent hue from our own. 

Young men of America, let us prize, as we ought, our 
country's rich inheritance in great examples. And now, 
another star is added to the brilliant constellation of our 



85 

patriot sages, worthy to sliiiie in felicitous eoujunctioii with 
the purest himiuaries of our earlier days. Its propitious 
beams shall quicken within us integrity and faith, devotion 
to principle and to the right, confidence in the sultstantial 
worth of our institutions, joined with the constant desire 
to make them better and better; love for our fellow-men, 
unlimited by lines of race or creed; and all directed, shaped, 
and sanctified b}^ love of the great Father of all. Let us 
honor our martyred chief b}^ sincere admiration. l)y im- 
mortal praises, and, so far as the ability is granted us. by 
resembling him. Similitudine decoremus. So shall we be 
worthy to be the compatriots of Washington and of Lin- 
coln ; so shall we do onr part in upholding the fair fabric 
of freedom and of virtue, the proud boast of our institu- 
tions, and the best secular hope of mankind. 



L3 S '12 



